Preface

Managing projects can be as exciting as scheduling the next space shuttle or as mundane as planning routine product ion-line maintenance. A project can be as rewarding as striking oil or as disastrous as the maiden voyage or the Titanic. Projects can have budgets of $5 or 55.000,000. One thing that all projects have in common, however, is their potential for success or failure — the promise that if you do it right, you'll accomplish your goal.

Why You Need This Book

Microsoft Project is a tool for implementing project management principles and practices that can help you succeed. That's why this book provides not only the information about which buttons to press and where to type project dates but also the conceptual framework to make computerized project management work for you.

How it's designed

This book strives to offer real-world examples of projects from many industries and disciplines, You'll see yourself and your own projects somewhere in this book. A wealth of tips and advice show you how to address, control, and overcome real-world constraints. The book is designed to work for you in two ways:

• As a tutorial. You can use Microsoft Project 2007 Bible as a linear tool to learn Project — from the ground up.

• As a reference. You can put it on the shelf and use it as your Project reference book, to be pulled down as needed — for advice, information, and step-by-step procedures.

Either way, this book will enrich your Microsoft Project experience and make you a better project manager.

Whom it's for

Unlike word processing or spreadsheet software, many of you may have come to project management software never having used anything quite like it before. You may also have used earlier versions of Project or other project management software.

• If you're new to project management: This book is for you. The early chapters explain the basic concepts of computerized project management and what it can do for you so that you have a context in which to learn Project.

• If you're experienced with project management: This book is also for you. It explains what's new in the latest version of Project and shows you techniques for using the software that you may not have considered before.

You will benefit most from this book if you have at least a basic understanding of the Windows environment, have mastered standard Windows software conventions, and are comfortable using a mouse. But beyond that, you need only the desire to succeed as a project manager, which this book will help you do.

The Special Features of This Book

To help you maximize your use of this book, I've included many special features in its design and conception. The Following sections show you how they work.

Formatting conventions

To streamline your learning experience, I've used the following formatting conventions;

• Text you're asked to type: When you're asked to enter text into a Project schedule, for example, it appears in boldface.

• When using the mouse: A click indicates a left mouse-button click and right-click indicates a right mouse-button click. Double-click designates two quick, successive clicks of the left mouse button.

• Keystroke combinations: These look like this: Alt+Tab. Hold down the first key and, without letting it go, press the second key.

• Menu commands: These are shown with the command arrow — for example, Choose File Open.

• New terms: When a new term or concept is introduced, it appears in italics.

Margin icons

Throughout the book, I've included special icons in the margins to call your attention to added information, shortcuts and advice, warnings about potentially disastrous courses of action, the new features of Project 2007, references to additional wisdom, and how to access the wonderful software on the CD-ROM that accompanies this book. Here's how they look:

A tip is a bit of advice or a hint to save you time and indicate the best way to get things done.

Sagacious Sidebars Sidebars, such as this one, are departures into background details or interesting information. They're designed so that you may read around them if you're in a hurry to accomplish a specific task.

When you have the lime for a more comprehensive approach to the subject, however, the concepts that you find in sidebars may prove invaluable—providing the context and depth necessary to achieve a fuller understanding of Project's functions.

How This Book Is Organized

This book is organized in the way that you will use Microsoft Project, It begins with some basic concepts and progresses through the features that you need to build a typical schedule and then track its progress. The later chapters provide more advanced information for customizing Project, using it in workgroup settings, and taking Project online.

Part I: Project Management Basics

Part I or the book explains the basic project management concepts and terminology that you'll need to learn Project. In Chapter 1, you take a look at the nature of projects themselves, how Microsoft Project can help you control them, and the life cycle of a typical project. In Chapter 2, you get your first glimpse of the Project software environment

Part II: Getting Your Project Going

Here's where you learn about the type of information that Project needs in order to do its job. In Chapter 3, you begin to build your first schedule and add tasks in an outline structure. In Chapter 4, you assign timing and construct timing relationships among those tasks. In Chapter 5, you begin assigning people and other resources to your project. This chapter is also where you team to determine how these resources add costs to a project and how to handle issues such as overtime and shift work.

Part III: Refining Your Project

Before your project is ready for prime time, you need to tweak some things, just as you check spelling in a word-processed document. Chapter 6 explains how to view that information to gain perspective on your project, and Chapter 7 helps you to manipulate and customize views to make them work for you. Chapter 8 shows you how to make your project schedule look more professional by formatting the text and modifying the appearance of chart elements. The next two chapters delve into the tools that Project provides to resolve conflicts in your schedule. Chapter 9 explores resolving conflicts in the timing of your schedule so that you can meet your deadlines. Chapter 10 considers the issue of resolving resource conflicts, such as overworked people and underutilized equipment.

Part IV: Tracking Your Progress

Here's where you get the payoff for all your data entry and patient resolution of problems in your schedule. After you set your basic schedule and the project begins, you can track its progress and check data on your status from various perspectives. Chapter 11 gives you an overview of the tracking process. Chapter 12 shows you how to track progress on your individual tasks and view that progress in various ways. In Chapter 13, you explore the power of generating reports on your projects for everyone from management to individual project team members. Chapter 14 gives advice and methods for analyzing your progress and making adjustments as needed to stay on schedule and within your budget.

Part V: Working in Groups

Most projects worth the effort of tracking in Project aren't done by a single person; workgroups, teams, and committees often form a day-to-day working project team. Chapter 15 shows you how to set up multiple projects to run concurrently or to consolidate smaller projects into larger schedules, and in Chapters 16 through 21, you learn how to plan, implement, and manage projects using Project, Project Web Access, and Project Server, Microsoft's Web-based project-managed solution.

Part VI: Advanced Microsoft Project

Part VI provides advice and information to make your use of Microsoft Project easier. Learn about customizing the Project environment in Chapter 22. Chapter 23 provides information on macros, which are simple programs that enable you to record and automatically play back series of steps that you use frequently, thus saving you time and effort. Chapter 24 shows you how to use VBA and VBScript to customize Project so that it works the way you work. Chapter 25 deals with importing and exponing information into and out of Project. Importing information from other software can save you the time and expense of reentering existing data. And in Chapter 26, you'll find some case studies that show you ways in which Project has been used by a variety of companies.

Appendixes

Appendixes B-D provide resources and other additional materials to make your work easier. Appendix A covers the contents of and installation for the companion CD-ROM, which contains trial software, time-saving templates, and a Web page with links to sites of interest in the project management world — including sites for partners of Microsoft Project.

Project Management Glossary

The glossary at the end of the book contains many specifically project management-related terms and concepts that have evolved over time. These terms are defined when they are first used in the book, but you may want to look them up at a later date. Use this handy alphabetical listing to do so.